moneywatch Feature Package
The ranks of the white-collar unemployed have risen by more than a third since 2007. The market for full-time employment is worse than it’s been in decades. If you’re included in one of the above statistics, you’ve probably got little choice but to consider consulting for a time. You’d certainly have plenty of company: freelancers comprise more than a quarter of the working population in the U.S. today, according to Kelly Services, up from 19 percent in 2006.
While consulting may seem like a stopgap option at best, it can, in the long run, be your best entrée back into a permanent position. If you’ve never consulted before, though, there are some important things you need to know to get started. And take heart: we’ve identified half a dozen fields in which consultants are in high demand and commanding very respectable wages. And you never know — you might just find, as more than a few “accidental” consultants have, that the freelance life turns out to be the best career you ever had.
